


Queen of Pentacles

by PostcardsfromTheoryland



Series: April Tarot Card Prompts [21]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Domesticity, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23783827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PostcardsfromTheoryland/pseuds/PostcardsfromTheoryland
Summary: The Queen of Pentacles: Protectiveness, a working parent, social status, material wealthKrolia overcompensates for Keith's childhood.
Relationships: Keith & Krolia (Voltron)
Series: April Tarot Card Prompts [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1686346
Comments: 8
Kudos: 68





	Queen of Pentacles

Keith’s understanding of family units was admittedly lacking, but he was _pretty sure_ this was actually the time in his life when he was supposed to be moving _out_ of his mother’s house, not into it.

Still, he supposed they were sort of doing this whole mother-son relationship all out of order anyways, and it would be nicer not to have to worry about who would take care of a house while he was out on Blade missions. So when Krolia had asked if he wanted her to buy a house in the new Daibazaal Capitol with space for him in mind, he was touched and said yes.

Ezor cooed over him as he disconnected the call and Zethrid called him some Galran word that didn’t translate but he was guessing was slightly insulting, going by the way Acxa shoved her in the arm (he’d wanted to take that call alone, but privacy onboard a ship with the three of them was basically nonexistent, he was discovering).

“Is it normal for Galra to leave their parents when they get older?” Keith asked Acxa later that night over mugs of the sweet, mulled wine they’d been given by the locals on Xtrisen. She seemed the least likely to tease him about not knowing any of this shit.

“It depends,” she shrugged. “As soldiers we were taken away from our parents at a young age to go to the academies and then shipped off to an assignment as soon as we could point a gun, but I’ve heard that civilians tend to live with their family units for much longer, and some never leave. I do not think most people would fault you for this choice, and besides, Krolia would threaten anyone that did.”

That much was true. He’d wanted to ask more questions, his knowledge of Galran culture still sorely lacking, but he’d been interrupted by Kosmo (and didn’t Keith hate that it was the only name the wolf would answer to now?) flashing into existence next to him and trying to get at his wine. Keith couldn’t be sure, but he was guessing space wolves weren’t supposed to drink alcohol.

It was three phoebs later that they finally returned to Daibazaal. Krolia met him as they docked, taking his bag from him and leading him through the winding side streets, obviously very pleased with herself. She brought him into a nice-looking neighborhood and opened the door with a flourish to something that was honestly much homier than Keith had been expecting it to be.

She gave him a little mini tour, showing off the gleaming kitchen (despite the fact that neither one of them could cook using anything that wasn’t an open flame), the bedroom she’d suggested would be his, complete with a bed for Kosmo in the corner (though Keith knew that he would inevitably wake up partway through the night to a giant wolf drooling onto the sheets and fur in his mouth). There were enough guest rooms that all the paladins could have visited at once and each have their own room, and they could practically hold football games in the great room. The second floor was one giant, open loft space with lots of light coming through the windows and he could already imagine making it a cozy spot to read through mission briefings with a coffee. And there was a kind of almost earthiness to the whole place. The walls were the dark stone that made up most of the Capital City, but most of the fixtures looked like they could have come from Earth. Maybe Krolia had special ordered them?

“Do you like it?” Krolia asked with poorly concealed apprehension.

“Yeah, I do,” he said truthfully. It was a nice feeling, someone doing all this with him in mind. Daibazaal itself was going to take some getting used to, but he could see this place becoming home.

“Good,” Krolia smiled, relieved. “This is your wing.”

It took a few seconds for that sentence to really register.

“My what?”

Krolia was sweeping past him to open another door. He’d assumed that one opened out to the backyard, but it actually just led into another hallway, and god that was like another entire _house_.

No, it _was_ an entire other house, even larger than the section they’d just come from.

“What did you...where did...how did you even afford this?” Keith finally settled on.

“The retainer I am receiving as one of the minister’s advisors is quite substantial, and I had quite a bit saved already from my tenure under Warlord Ranveig. And it was a...what is the English word? Maker-upper?”

“Fixer-upper,” Keith corrected numbly. “You, you didn’t buy a house, you bought a _mansion_. No, not even, you bought a _palace_.”

“It was on sale,” she said, a corner of her mouth twitching to give her away. “Is it...too much?”

“Too much...Mom, you saw all those memories in the quantum abyss, you know I didn’t grow up living anywhere near this fancy.”

“Which is why I decided you deserved this,” she reasoned. “And I know that humans generally leave their parents when they are your age, so I thought perhaps having something private would be preferable to you.” She glanced down at him, beginning to frown. “It is too much, isn’t it.”

“No,” he protested, “it’s just...a lot to take in, all at once. I mean, even the Castle of Lions wasn’t like this. It was huge, but our own rooms were pretty small in comparison. This is just…” he trailed off, not knowing how to explain that this was by far the nicest, largest place he’d ever been in, Altean castle and IGF-Atlas notwithstanding.

“Give it some time. I’ve been living here through the renovations and I’ve found it...nice,” she said, and Keith couldn’t help snorting in response.

“Nice” was one way to put it.

The house did have some definite perks. The huge jetted tub in his bathroom was bliss after several phoebs on a small-ish ship with three other people, and Krolia had taken the liberty of filling the study with hundreds of books from Earth. There was some kind of machine in the kitchen that dispensed hot cocoa, among other things, and the cupboards were already full of clean dishes, so he grabbed a mug and a book and settled onto the couch, Kosmo napping at his feet. He was honestly a little concerned that the size of the house meant he’d never actually see Krolia.

He shouldn’t have worried.

He didn’t realize he’d fallen asleep on the sofa until Krolia was waking him, ushering him down the hall to his bedroom. She took her time, tucking him gently into bed and then lighting the hearth (and his bedroom had a fireplace in it, what the hell). The bed was huge, but with a spark of light from behind him, Kosmo was suddenly taking up at least half of it, so Keith supposed that made sense.

“I’ll make breakfast in the morning,” Krolia said with one last adjustment to his blankets. Keith tried to make his hum as suspicious-sounding as he could. “I will buy breakfast in the morning from the very good bakery on the corner,” she amended. "Sleep well."

“Night, mom,” he managed.

“Welcome home, Keith.”


End file.
